System and method for provisioning an email account using mail exchange records

ABSTRACT

A system provisions an electronic mail (email) account of a user for allowing access to an electronic mailbox from a remote device to retrieve email. A communications module receives email address parameters of the user and transmits a domain name system (DNS) query to the Internet for returning mail exchange (MX) records corresponding to the email address parameters of the user. A configuration module processes any returned MX records as a starting point for determining configuration parameters for accessing the email account of the user to retrieve user email.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of communications systems,and, more particularly, to electronic mail (email) communicationssystems and related methods.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Electronic mail (email) has become an integral part of business andpersonal communications. As such, many users have multiple emailaccounts for work and home use. Moreover, with the increasedavailability of mobile cellular and wireless local area network (LAN)devices that can send and receive emails, many users wirelessly accessemails from mailboxes stored on different email storage servers (e.g.,corporate email storage server, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, etc.).

Yet, email distribution and synchronization across multiple mailboxesand over wireless networks can be quite challenging, particularly whenthis is done on a large scale for numerous users. For example, differentemail accounts may be configured differently and with non-uniform accesscriteria. Moreover, as emails are received at the wirelesscommunications device, copies of the emails may still be present in theoriginal mailboxes, which can make it difficult for users to keep theiremail organized.

One particularly advantageous “push” type email distribution andsynchronization system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,779,019 toMousseau et al., which is assigned to the present Assignee and is herebyincorporated herein by reference. This system pushes user-selected dataitems from a host system to a user's mobile wireless communicationsdevice upon detecting the occurrence of one or more user-defined eventtriggers. The user may then move (or file) the data items to aparticular folder within a folder hierarchy stored in the mobilewireless communications device, or may execute some other systemoperation on a data item. Software operating at the device and the hostsystem then synchronizes the folder hierarchy of the device with afolder hierarchy of the host system, and any actions executed on thedata items at the device are then automatically replicated on the samedata items stored at the host system, thus eliminating the need for theuser to manually replicate actions at the host system that have beenexecuted at the mobile wireless communications device.

The foregoing system advantageously provides great convenience to usersof wireless email communication devices for organizing and managingtheir email messages. Yet, further convenience and efficiency featuresmay be desired in email distribution and synchronization systems asemail usage continues to grow in popularity. For example, in new useraccounts, an email provisioning and authentication system can runthrough a series of possible email server configurations to determinehow to access an electronic mailbox for a user email account. The usercan supply email address parameters such as an email address andpassword, but often becomes frustrated if the wrong email addressparameter is typed. The user typically must wait a relatively long timeto determine if something is wrong, or worse, the user may be given anadvanced configuration screen and asked to provide difficult to know IPaddress numbers, ports and other entries because of the mistake. Someprior art systems have parsed emails and tried to provision, and as asubsequent step after failure, used MX records to aid in the process foraccessing email. But those systems have not been used for provisioningin a more direct manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent from the detailed description of the invention whichfollows, when considered in light of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is schematic block diagram of a direct access electronic mail(email) distribution and synchronization system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of userinterface components of the direct access proxy of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of theWeb client engine of the system of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of themobile office platform engine machine for use in the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of thedatabase module of the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing functional components of aconfiguration module and communications module that can be operative aspart of a mobile office platform.

FIG. 7 is a high-level flowchart as an example of the process used forprovisioning an email account using MX records.

FIG. 8 is a high-level flowchart showing an example of the process usedfor provisioning an email account using mail exchange (MX) and address(A) records.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a system for learning mailbox configurationconventions.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a system for determining configurationparameters.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing details of configuration conventionsusing different expressions as a subset.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating a system for using symbolicexpressions to represent conventions used for mailbox configurationparameters.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an example of a representation forconfiguration conventions that are sets of email expressions formed bysymbols.

FIG. 14 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an exemplary mobilewireless communications device that can be used with the Direct Accesssystem shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Different embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodimentsare shown. Many different forms can be set forth and describedembodiments should not be construed as limited to the embodiments setforth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that thisdisclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey thescope to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elementsthroughout, and prime notation is used to indicate similar elements inalternative embodiments.

A system provisions an electronic (email) account of a user for allowingaccess to an electronic mailbox from a remote device to retrieve email.A communications module receives email address parameters entered by theuser and transmits a domain name system (DNS) query to the internet forreturning mail exchange (MX) records corresponding to the email addressparameters entered by the user. A configuration module processes anyreturned MX records as a starting point for determining configurationparameters for accessing the email account of the user to retrieve useremail.

In another aspect, the configuration module is operative for determiningfrom the MX records a mail server from which email is accessed for theuser email account. The communications module is operative for receivinga password from the user and attempting access to the user email accountusing any determined configuration parameters. The configuration moduleis also operative for obtaining from the MX records a prioritized listof possible mail servers to which the user email account is to beaccessed and attempting access to an email account based on priority.The configuration parameters include one of at least a mail host, port,log-in name, or password as non-limiting examples. The configurationmodule can also be operative for generating a subset of possibleconfiguration parameters by using heuristics of likelihood that a set ofconfiguration parameters would be valid for accessing an electronicmailbox. The system includes a database containing relevantconfiguration conventions that are sets of email expressions formed bysymbols that symbolically represent the conventions used by emailservice providers for a set of configuration parameters. Theconfiguration module can be operative for generating sets of possibleconfiguration parameters that can be tracked for accessing an electronicmailbox of a user. The communications module and configuration modulecan be operative as part of a mobile office platform having a directaccess proxy used for accessing an electronic mailbox.

In another aspect, a method and computer-readable medium is set forth.

Referring initially to FIG. 1, a direct access (DA) email distributionand synchronization system 20 allows direct access to different mailsources, allowing messages to be transferred directly to a mobilewireless handheld device from a source mailbox. As a result, differentmail stores need not be used for integrated external source mailaccounts, and a permanent copy of an email in a local email store is notrequired.

Although this diagram depicts objects as functionally separate, suchdepiction is merely for illustrative purposes. It will be apparent tothose skilled in the art that the objects portrayed in this figure canbe arbitrarily combined or divided into separate software, firmware orhardware components. Furthermore, it will also be apparent to thoseskilled in the art that such objects, regardless of how they arecombined or divided, can execute on the same computing device or can bearbitrarily distributed among different computing devices connected byone or more networks.

The direct access system 20 enables email users or subscribers to haveemail from third party email services pushed to various mobile wirelesscommunications devices 25. Users need not create a handheld emailaccount to gain direct access to an existing external email account. Thedirect access system 20 may operate without performing aggregation asused in some prior art systems, in which emails are aggregated frommultiple different source mailboxes to a single target mailbox. In otherwords, email need not be stored in an intermediate target mailbox, butinstead may advantageously be accessed directly from a source mailstore.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the direct access system 20 illustrativelyincludes a Web client (WC) engine 22 and a mobile office platform (MOP)24. These Web client engine 22 and mobile office platform 24 operatetogether to provide users with direct access to their email from mobilewireless communications devices 25 via one or more wirelesscommunications networks 27, for example. Both the Web client engine 22and the mobile office platform 24 may be located at the same location orat separate locations, and implemented in one or more servers. The webclient engine 22 illustratively includes a port agent 30 forcommunicating with the wireless communications devices 25 via thewireless communications network(s) 27, a worker 32, a supervisor 34, andan attachment server 36, which will be discussed further below. An alertserver 38 is shown in dashed lines, and in one preferred embodiment, isnot used, but could be part of the system in yet other embodiments.

The mobile office platform 24 illustratively includes a DA proxy 40, anda proxy application programming interface (API) 42 and a cache 44cooperating with the DA proxy. The mobile office platform 24 alsoillustratively includes a load balance and cache (LBAC) module 46, anevent server 48, a universal proxy (UP) Servlet 54, an AggCron module56, a mobile office platform (MOP) engine 58, and a database (DB) engine60, which will be discussed in further detail below. The Least RecentlyUsed (LRU) cache 41 caches new messages, and can release messages andobjects that were least recently used.

The supervisor 34 processes new mail notifications that it receives fromthe direct access proxy 40. It then assigns a job, in the form of a UserDatagram Protocol (UDP) packet, to the least-loaded worker 32, accordingto the most recent UDP heartbeat the supervisor 34 has received. Forpurposes of this description, heartbeat is a tool that monitors thestate of the server. Additionally, the supervisor 34 will receive a newservice book request from the direct access proxy 40 to send servicebooks to the mobile wireless communication device for new or changedaccounts. A service book can be a class that could contain all servicerecords currently defined. This class can be used to maintain acollection of information about the device, such as connectioninformation or services, such as an email address of the account.

The worker 32 is an intermediary processing agent between the supervisor34 and the port agent 30, and responsible for most processing in the Webclient engine 22. It will retrieve e-mail from a universal proxy 54, viaa direct access proxy, and format e-mail in Compressed MultipurposeInternet Mail Extension (CMIME) as a type of Multipurpose Internet MailExtension, and send it to the port agent 30, for further processing. Itsresponsibilities include the following tasks: (1) messages sent to andreceived from the handheld; (2) message reply, forward and morerequests; (3) Over The Air Folder Management operation (OTAFM); (4)attachment viewing; and (5) service book.

The port agent 30 acts as a transport layer between the infrastructureand the rest of the Web client engine 22. It is responsible fordelivering packets to and from the mobile wireless communicationsdevice. To support different integrated mailboxes with one device, morethan one service book can be used, and each service book can beassociated with one integrated mailbox. A port agent 30 can include oneServer Relay Protocol (SRP) connection to a relay, but it can alsohandle multiple SRP connections, and each connection may have a uniqueGlobally Unique Identifier (GUID) associated with a service book. Theattachment server 36 provides service for document/attachment conversionrequests from workers 32.

The direct access proxy 40 provides a Web-based Distributed Authoringand Versioning (WebDAV) interface that is used by the worker 32 toaccess account and mailbox information. This provides functionality tocreate, change and move documents on a remote server, e.g., a Webserver. The direct access proxy 40 typically will present anasynchronous interface to its clients. The LBAC module 46 is used by anotification server and the Web client engine 22 components to locatethe proper DA proxy for the handling of a request. The universal proxyServlet 54 abstracts access to disparate mail stores into a commonprotocol. The event server 48 responds to notifications of new messagesfrom corporate servers 52 and/or mail service providers 50, which may bereceived via the Internet 40, for example. The notifications arecommunicated to the direct access proxy 40 by the AggCron module 56 andthe event server 48 so that it may initiate checking for new mail onsource mailboxes 51, 53 of the mail service providers 50 and/orcorporate servers 52. The proxy API can be a Simple Object AccessProtocol (SOAP) Daemon 42 and is the primary interface into a database60, which is the primary data store for the mobile office platform 24.The AggCron module 56 may also periodically initiate polling for newmessages as well.

FIG. 2 is a high-level block diagram showing user interface componentsof the direct access proxy 40. More particularly, the direct accessproxy 40 illustratively includes an identifier module 72 with variousdownstream proxy modules for different communication formats, such as aWireless Application Protocol (WAP) proxy module 74 and a HypertextMarkup Language (HTML) proxy module 76. Of course, it will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of proxymodules for other communications formats may also be used.

The identifier module 72 provides a centralized authentication servicefor the direct access system 20 and other services. An authenticationhandshake may be provided between an ID service and direct access system20 to ensure that users have the proper credentials before they areallowed access to the direct access system 20. The ability to switchfrom managing a Web client to a direct access system, or vice versa, mayoccur without requiring the user to re-enter any login credentials. AnyWeb client and direct access may share session management information onbehalf of a user.

The WAP proxy 74 provides a wireless markup language (WML)-based userinterface for configuring source mailboxes with the mobile officeplatform 24. The HTML proxy 76 provides an HTML-based user interface forconfiguring of source mailboxes in the MOP 24. The proxy API 42 (SOAPDaemon) is the primary interface into the database 60. The engine 58 isa protocol translator that connects to a source mailbox to validateconfiguration parameters. The database 60 is the primary user data storefor the mobile office platform 24.

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 illustrate respective Web client engine machines 80(FIG. 3), an engine machine 82 (FIG. 4), and database machine 84 (FIG.5). The Web client engine machine 80 illustratively includes thesupervisors 34, workers 36, and port agents 38. Relays 86 cooperate withthe port agents 38 using a GUID.

The engine machine 82 illustratively includes a direct access proxy 40,HTML proxy 76, WAP proxy 74, PDS module 88, UP Servlet 54, LBAC module46, a sendmail module 90, an secure mail client (SMC) server 92, asecure sockets layer (SSL) proxy 94, an aggregation engine 96, and eventserver 48. The SMC server 92 cooperates with corresponding SMC modulesresident on certain corporate networks, for example, to convey emaildata between the mobile office platform 24 and source mailboxes. Thedatabase machine 84 may include an aggregation application programminginterface (API) 100 as a SOAP Daemon, an administration console 102, anaggregation database 104, the AggCron module 56, an SMC directory server106, and a send mail module 90.

The various components of the Web client engine 22 may be configured torun on different machines or servers. The component binaries andconfiguration files may either be placed in a directory on the networkor placed on a local disk that can be accessed to allow the appropriatecomponents to run from each machine. In accordance with one exemplaryimplementation, deployment may include one supervisor, two workers, andone port agent for supporting 30,000 external source mailboxes, althoughother configurations may also be used. Actual production deployment maydepend on the results of load, performance and stress testing, as willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art.

For the mobile office platform 24 direct access components, modules andvarious functions, machines are typically installed in twoconfigurations, namely engine machines (FIG. 4) and database machines(FIG. 5). While these machines may have all of the above-describedcomponents installed on them, not all of these components need be activein all applications (e.g., aggregation may be used with systems that donot support push technology, etc.). Once again, actual productiondeployment may depend on the results of load, performance and stresstesting.

The mobile office platform 24 architecture in one known techniqueadvantageously uses a set of device/language-specific extensibleStylesheet Language (XSL) files, which transform application data intopresentation information. In one non-limiting example, a build processtakes a non-localized XSL and generates a localized XSL for eachsupported language. When the XSL is used, it is “compiled” in memory andcached for repeated use. The purpose of pre-localizing and caching thetemplates is to reduce the CPU cycles required to generate apresentation page.

Branding may also be performed. Initially, a localized XSL may build aWAP application to access aggregated email accounts. A WAP proxyapplication may be localizable and support multiple WAP devices. Foreach logical page of an application, a device-specific XSL may becreated, which may be localized for each language/country supported.This rendering scheme may support not only WAP devices, but also SMTP,HTML and POP proxies, for example. In branding, each page of a givenapplication may be customized for each different brand.

The branding of a page may be accomplished through XSL imports,including the use of a Java application programming interface (API) forXML processing (JAXP) feature to resolve the imports dynamically. Thisneed not require that each combined page/brand template be compiled andcached. By way of example, in a sample template directory, first andsecond pages for a single language/country may be combined with brandedcounterparts to generate a plurality of distinct template combinations.It is also possible to profile memory requirements of an application byloading templates for a single language, device/application and brand.An HTML device may include a set of templates that are large compared toother devices.

In one known technique, the mobile office platform 24 advantageouslybuilds processes and takes non-localized files and language-specificproperty files and combines them to make each non-localized XSL into anXSL for each supported language. A separate XSL for each language neednot be used, and the language factor may be removed from the memoryusage equation. A JAXP API may be used to extend XSL with Java classes.The extensions may take various forms, for example, including extensionelements and extension functions. A template may be transformed bycreating and initializing an extension object with a locale and passingan object to a transformer. The system can remove multiple imports anduse less memory. HTML templates can use template importing to enabletemplate reuse, much like Java classes, and reuse other Java classesthrough a mechanism like derivation or importing.

In the direct access system 20, users receive email on their mobilewireless communications devices 25 from multiple external accounts, andwhen replying to a received message, the reply-to and sent-from addressintegrity is preserved. For example, for a user that has an integratedYahoo! account (user@yahoo.com) and a POP3 account (user@pop3.com), ifthey receive an email at user@yahoo.com, their replies generated fromthe device 25 will appear to come from user@yahoo.com. Similarly, if auser receives an email at user@pop3.com, their replies will appear tocome from user@pop3.com.

Selection of the “sent from” address is also available to a user thatcomposes new messages. The user will have the ability to select the“sent from” address when composing a new message. Depending on thesource mailbox type and protocol, the message may also be sent throughthe source mail service. This functionality can be supported by sendinga configuration for each source mailbox, for example, as a non-limitingexample, a service book for each source mailbox 51, 53 to the mobilewireless communications device 25.

As noted above, a service book is a class that may include all servicerecords currently defined. This class may be used to maintain acollection of information about the device, such as connectioninformation. The service book may be used to manage HTTP connections andmail (CMIME) information such as account and hierachy. At mobilewireless communications devices 25, a delete service book request may besent when a source mailbox 51, 53 is removed from the account. Theservice book may also be resent to the device 25 with a viewable namethat gives the user some indication that the selection is no longervalid.

A sent items folder may also be “synchronized.” Any device-originatedsent messages may be propagated to a source account and stored in a sentmail folder, for example. Also, messages deleted on the device 25 maycorrespondingly be deleted from the source mailbox 51, 53. Anotherexample is that device-originated marking of a message as read or unreadon the device 25 may similarly be propagated to the source mailbox 51,53. While the foregoing features are described as source-dependent andsynchronizing one-way, in some embodiments certain synchronizationfeatures may in addition, or instead, propagate from the sourcemailbox/account to the handheld device, as will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the art.

When available, the mail service provider or corporate mail server maybe used for submission of outgoing messages. While this may not bepossible for all mail service providers or servers, it is preferrablyused when available as it may provide several advantages. For example,subscribers to AOL will get the benefit of AOL-specific features likeparental controls. Furthermore, AOL and Yahoo users, as non-limitingexamples, will see messages in their sent items folder, and messagesrouted in this manner may be more compliant with new spam policies suchas Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Sender Id. In addition, messagessent via corporate mail servers 52 will have proper name resolution bothat the global address list level and the personal level. It should beunderstood, however, that the use of the mail service provider 50 todeliver mail may be dependant on partner agreements and/or protocol,depending upon the given implementation.

The architecture described above also advantageously allows for featuressuch as on-demand retrieval of message bodies and attachments andmultiple folder support. Morever, a “this-is-spam” button or indicatormay be used allowing company labels and other service provider-specificfeatures when supported by an underlying protocol, as will beappreciated by those skilled in the art.

One particular advantage of the direct access system 20 is that a userneed not configure an account before integrating additional accounts.However, a standalone email address may be used, and this addressadvantageously need not be tied to a mailbox size which the subscriberis required to manage. For example, the email account may be managed byan administrator, and any mail could be purged from the system after apre-determined period of time (i.e., time-based auto-aging with nomailbox limit for all users).

Additionally, all aspects of any integrated email account creation,settings and options may advantageously be available to the user fromtheir mobile wireless communications device 25 Thus, users need notvisit an HTML site and change a setting, create a filter, or performsimilar functions, for example. Of course, an HTML site may optionallybe used.

As a system Internet email service with the direct access system 20grows, ongoing emphasis may advantageously be placed on theadministrative site to provide additional information to carrieradministrators, support teams, and similar functions. However, in someinstances a mail connector may be installed on a personal computer, andthis functionality may not always be available from the mobile wirelesscommunications device.

The Web client engine 22 may advantageously support different featuresincluding message to handheld (MTH), message from handheld (MFH),forward/reply a message, request to view more for a large message (e.g.,larger than 2K), request viewing message attachment, and over the airfolder management (OTAFM). These functions are explained below.

For an MTH function, each email account integrated for a user is linkedwith the user device through a Web client service book. For each newmessage that arrives in the Web client user mailbox, a notification thatcontains the new message information will typically be sent to a Webclient engine supervisor component (FIG. 3), which in turn will assignthe job to an available worker with the least load in the system. Thechosen worker 32 will validate the user information and retrieve the newmessage from the user source mailbox and deliver it to the user device.

In an MFH function, MFH messages associated with a Web client servicebook are processed by the Web client engine 22 and delivered to theInternet 49 by the worker 32 via the simple mail transfer protocol(SMTP) or native outbox. If a user turns on the option to save the sentmessage to the sent items folder, the direct access proxy will save acopy of the sent message to this folder.

In a Forward/Reply/More function, the user can forward or reply an MTHor MFH message from the mobile wireless communications device 25 as longas the original message still existed in the direct access proxy cacheor in user mailbox. For MTH, the worker 32 may send the first 2K, forexample, or the whole message (whatever is less) to the user device. Ifthe message is larger than 2K, the user can request MORE to view thenext 2K of the message. In this case, the worker 32 will process theMore request by retrieving the original message from the user sourcemailbox, and send back the 2K that the device requests. Of course, insome embodiments more than 2K of message text (or the entire message)may be sent.

In an attachment-viewing function, a user can view a message attachmentof a popular document format (e.g., MS Word, MS Power Point, MS Excel,Word Perfect, PDF, text, etc.) or image format (GIF, JPEG, etc). Uponreceiving the attachment-viewing request, which is implemented in a formof the More request in this example, the worker 32 can fetch theoriginal message from the user source mailbox via the direct accessproxy, extract the requested attachment, process it and send result backto the user device. The processing requires that the original messagehas not been deleted from the user Web client mailbox.

In the save sent message to sent items folder function, if the userturns this option on, the worker 32 places a copy of each MFH messagesent from the user device in the user sent items folder in the mailbox.In over the air folder management, the Web client OTAFM servicemaintains any messages and folders in the user mailbox synchronized withthe user device over the air.

Whenever a message in the user source mailbox is Moved/Deleted, theassociated message on the device may also be Moved/Deleted accordingly,and vice-versa. When a message is Moved/Deleted on the device, theassociated message in the user Web client mailbox may also beMoved/Deleted accordingly. Similarly, when a folder isAdded/Removed/Renamed from the user Web client mailbox, the associatedfolder on the device may be Added/Removed/Renamed, and vice-versa.

The system 20 may advantageously support different subsets of variousmessaging features. For example, in the message to handheld function,the mobile office platform 24 may be responsible for connecting to thevarious source mailboxes 51, 53 to detect new emails. For each new mail,a notification is sent to the Web client engine 22 and, based on thisnotification, the supervisor 34 chooses one of the workers 32 to processthat email. The chosen worker will fetch additional account informationand the contents of the mail message from the direct access proxy 40 anddeliver it to the user device 25.

In a message sent from handheld function, the MFH could be given to thedirect access proxy 40 from the Web client worker 32. In turn, themobile office platform 24 delivers a message to the Internet 49 bysending through a native outbox or sending it via SMTP. It should beunderstood, however, that the native outbox, whenever possible, mayprovide a better user experience, especially when taking into accountcurrent anti-spam initiatives such as SPF and sender Id.

In a message deleted from handheld function, when a message is deletedfrom the device 25, the Web client engine 22 notifies the mobile officeplatform 24 via the direct access proxy 40. As such, the mobile officeplatform 24 can delete the same message on the source mailbox.

When handling More/Forward/Reply/Attachment viewing requests, the Webclient worker 32 may request an original mail from the direct accessproxy 40. It will then process the request and send the results to themobile wireless communications device 25. The architecture mayadditionally support on-demand retrieval of message parts and otherupgrades, for example.

Upon the integration of a new source mailbox 51, 53, the service booknotification from the alert server 38 may be sent to the supervisor 34,which assigns this notification to a worker 32 for sending out a servicerecord to the device. Each source mailbox 51, 53 may be associated witha unique service record. In this way, each MFH message is linked with asource mailbox 51, 53 based on the service record on the device.

The system 20 may also poll the integrated external mailboxesperiodically to check for new mail and to access any messages. Thesystem 20 may further incorporate optimizations for polling bandwidthfrom an aggregation component allowing a quick poll. The system 20 canalso advantageously support a large active user base and incorporate arapidly growing user base.

The topology of load balancing can be based on the size of a component'squeue and its throughput. These load statistics can be monitored by amechanism in one example called the UDP Heartbeat, as described before.If a component is overloaded or has a large queue size, the componentwill have less chance to get an assigned job from other components. Incontrast, a component will get more assigned jobs if it completes morejobs in the last few hours than other components. With this mechanism,the load could distribute over heterogeneous machine hardware, i.e.,components running on less power machines will be assigned fewer jobsthan those on machines with more power hardware.

General load balancing for any mobile office platform components can beaccomplished through the use of a load balancer module, for example, aBIG-IP module produced by F5 Networks of Seattle, Wash. BIG-IP canprovide load balancing and intelligent layer 7 switching, and can handletraffic routing from the Internet to any customer interfacing componentssuch as the WAP and HTML proxies. The use of a BIG-IP or similar modulemay provide the application with pooling capabilities, fault toleranceand session management, as will be appreciated by those skilled in theart.

Typically, access to a single source mailbox 51, 53 can be from a singledirect access proxy 40 over a persistent connection. Any requests onbehalf of a particular user could persist to the same machine in thesame direct access clustered partition. As certain components aresystem-wide and will be handling work for users across many partitions,these components can be designed to determine which direct accesspartition to communicate with on a request-by-request basis.

The load balancer and cache (LBAC) 46 may support this function. TheLBAC 46 is a system-wide component that can perform two importantfunctions. The first of these function is that it provides a mappingfrom the device PIN to a particular direct access proxy 40, whilecaching the information in memory for both fast access and to save loadon the central database. Secondly, as the direct access proxy 40 will berun in clustered partitions, the LBAC 46 may distribute the load acrossall direct access proxies within any partition.

The LBAC 46 can be formed of different components. For example, the codewhich performs the load balancing can be an extended version of a securemail connector. The code can also perform lookups to the centraldatabase and cache the results (LBAC).

In one non-limiting example, when a worker requires that a direct accessproxy 40 perform work, it provides the LBAC 46 with a device PIN. TheLBAC 46 will discover which partition that PIN is associated with bylooking in its cache, or retrieving the partition identifier from acentral database (and caching the result). Once the partition is known,the LBAC 46 then consults its cache to see which direct access proxy inthat partition has been designated to handle requests for that PIN. Ifno mapping exists, the LBAC requests the PDS to create a new associationon the least loaded DA proxy 40 (again caching the result). Finally, theLBAC 46 responds to the worker 32 with the connection information forthe proper direct access proxy to handle that particular request.

The secure mail connector 88 may run in failover pairs, where one is anactive master and the other is a secondary standby. Internal datastructures may be replicated in real-time from the master to thestandby. Multiple LBACs 46 can be run for scalability and faulttolerance, but typically would require an external connection balancingcomponent, such as the BIG-IP component as explained before.

A receiving component in the Web client engine 22 saves the job that hasbeen assigned to it from other components to a job store on the diskbefore processing. It can update the status of the job and remove thejob from the job store when the job processing is completed. In case ofcomponent failure or if the process is restarted, it can recover thejobs from the job store and, based on the current statuses of thesejobs, continue processing these jobs to the next state, saving the timeto reprocess them from the beginning.

Any recovery from the standpoint of MTH/MFH can be achieved throughcurrent polling behavior and on the Web client engine 22 recoverymechanisms. From within the mail office platform components, until amessage has been successfully delivered to a Web client engine 22, thatmessage is not recorded in the partition database 60. During the nextpolling interval, the system can again “discover” the message andattempt to notify the Web client engine 22. For new mail events, if anevent is lost, the system can pick up that message upon receiving thenext event or during the next polling interval. For sources supportingnotifications, this interval could be set at six hours, as onenon-limiting example. For messages sent from the Web client engine 22,and for messages that have been accepted by the Web client engine,recovery can be handled by different Web client engine components.

The Web client engine 22 may advantageously be horizontally andvertically scalable. Multiple supervisors 34 can beregistered/configured with direct access proxies 40 to provide thedistribution of the notification load and the availability of engineservice. Multiple workers 32 and port agents 30 can run on the samemachine or across multiple machines to distribute load and achieveredundancy. As the number of users grows, new components can be added tothe system to achieve high horizontal scalability.

It is possible for a new component to be added to or removed from thesystem automatically without down time. Traffic can automatically bedelegated to a new component and diverted away from failed components.Each component within the mobile office platform 24 can be deployedmultiple times to achieve horizontal scalability. To achieve verticalscalability, each mobile office platform 24 component can be amulti-threaded process with a configurable number of threads to scaleunder heavy load. Pools of connections can be used to reduce theoverhead of maintaining too many open connections.

The embodiments as described advantageously set forth a system andmethod in which the system can send a domain name system (DNS) query tothe Internet upon receipt of a user email that contains email addressparameters entered by the user. In one aspect, MX records correspondingto the email address parameters of the user can be returned, which areused as a starting point for determining configuration parameters foraccessing the email account of the user and retrieving user email. Inprior applications, the system would run through a series of possibleemail server configurations to determine access to a source mailbox. Forexample, if a user provided an email address of Sally@somedomain.com,the system would try a series of possible server domain names, forexample, mail.somedomain.com, pop.somedomain.com, etc. until the systemfinds one that works. If the system goes through the entire list ofpossibilities to validate an account, this can result in significantdelays. Also, with the increase in “vanity” domains, using the ending ofthe email address might not lead to the actual server where the accountis hosted. In addition, certain email actually resolves to other serviceprovider email systems, e.g., a Verizon.com addresses resolved tomail.yahoo.com. Thus, the current approach may not always find theappropriate address of the mail server, and the user may have to wait asignificant time while this process takes place only to have the processfail in the end.

In the application as described, the MX records can be used as astarting point for determining configuration parameters for accessing auser email account. The MX records can also be used to aid in the“guessing” logic, which is described later. A user domain name can bechecked against the MX record list to see if there is a match, and ifnot, then the system declares a failure without trying to authenticate.

In one non-limiting aspect, when provisioning a new email account, themail exchange (MX) and address (A) records corresponding to the enteredemail address parameters of the user are returned. A configurationmodule processes MX or A records to determine whether any email addressparameters entered by the user are valid before attempting to provisionthe email account of the user. The email address parameters could be anemail address, or email address and password as non-limiting examples.

FIG. 6 shows basic components of the mobile office platform 24 thatincludes functional components of a configuration module 24 a andcommunications module 24 b, and operative with the email serviceproviders 50 having email accounts and MX records and A records. Amobile wireless communications device 25 is operative with mobile officeplatform 24 and email service provider 50 with email accounts. Theconfiguration module 24 a and communications module 24 b are operativecomponents with general functional and descriptive names for one or morecomponents as described before relative to FIGS. 1-5.

A mail exchange (MX) record can be an entry in a domain name databasethat identifies a mail server that is responsible for handlingelectronic mail for the domain name. Different MX records can be enteredfor any single domain name that is using more than one mail server.Priority can be obtained by a preference number, indicating the order inwhich the mail servers could be used. This would allow primary andback-up mail servers. Thus, an MX record maps a domain name to a list ofmail exchange servers for that domain.

Another type of mapping from a name to an IP address is an address (A)record, for example, the host name to an IP address mapping. Typically,in the priority of MX records, the smallest preference number has thehighest priority.

It should be understood that although the DNS system supports differenttypes of record systems, the A record is typically a straight mappingbetween a name and one or more IP addresses. The MX record is usuallyused for routing email traffic, for example, routing emails of aparticular domain name to a particular server that can be different fromwhat is in the A records. Typically, the MX record is a good indicatorfor where the email domain name server is routing mail and can be usednot only to check a user domain name against the MX record to see if amatch occurs, but also to improve the guessing logic as will beexplained below. If the MX record does not match, there could be afailure and the system may not try to authenticate, but would ask a userto re-enter the particular email address parameters. The system andmethod could take a portion after the “@” and do a DNS query on theinternet for MX and A records. A number of MX records can be pulled andthe best one is picked to accomplish the provisioning and determinewhich server to pull mail from, especially when a company has severalservers with different MX records acting as back-ups. This is importantfor vanity domain names. If there is an A record, there may or may notbe additional insight on provisioning, yet in some instances, the Arecord can be used for determining a valid address. It is also possibleto make several educated guesses as explained below. Otherwise, the useris told it is not a valid address.

FIG. 7 is a high-level flowchart illustrating an example of a processused for provisioning an electronic mail (email) account of a user forallowing access to an electronic mailbox from a remote device toretrieve email. The process uses MX records as a starting point fordetermining configuration parameters and accessing the email account ofthe user to retrieve user email.

As shown at block 100, a user inputs email address parameters during aprovisioning process for typical remote access capabilities as describedabove. Upon receipt of the email address parameters, such as an emailaddress and log-in password, the communications module transmits a DNSquery to the internet for returning MX records corresponding to theemail address parameters of the user. The MX records are returned andused as a starting point for determining configuration parameters foraccessing the email account of the user to retrieve user email (block102). If MX records or A records are returned for the user domain, afailure could occur and provisioning may not continue. The MX recordscan also be used with guessing logic, if necessary or desired (block104).

It should be understood that in one aspect of a preferred andillustrated embodiment, there are two steps. In a first step, the username is used to retrieve a list of MX records. If a list of MX recordscomes back empty, then the user domain is used to retrieve a list of A(“address”) records as a second step. If the list of A records for thedomain is also empty, the system could declare a failure without tryingto authenticate. A database could include a table having a row for eachISP, operative with the guessing and other logic explained below.

Typically, the configuration module 24 a is operative for determiningfrom the MX records a mail exchange server for an email domain name towhich email is routed for the user email account. A prioritized list ofpossible mail servers can be obtained from the MX records to which theuser email account is to be accessed and access to an email account canbe based on priority. Configuration parameters could include the mailhost, port, log-in name or password.

The configuration module 24 a is operative for generating a subset ofpossible configuration parameters by using heuristics of likelihood thata set of configuration parameters would be valid for accessing anelectronic mailbox. A database can contain relevant configurationconventions that are sets of email expressions formed by symbols thatsymbolically represent the conventions used by email service providersfor a set of configuration parameters. The configuration module can beoperative for generating sets of possible configuration parameters thatcan be tried for accessing an electronic mailbox of a user.

FIG. 8 is a high-level flowchart as an example of a process used whenboth MX and A records can be returned. As shown at block 120, the userinputs email address parameters to begin the process of provisioning theemail account for remote access. The system 24 sends an inquiry firstfor MX records, and if no confirmation that the email address parametersare valid, the A records can be checked (block 122). Although thisdescription will proceed relative to first receiving MX records, both MXand A records could be returned at the same time, and in someembodiments is preferred. A check is made for valid email addressparameters (block 124). If not valid, the provisioning process steps(block 126). If these are valid email address parameters, provisioningcontinues and guessing logic can be used (block 128).

Typically, the configuration module 24 a will process any returned MX orA records to determine whether any email address parameters entered bythe user are valid before attempting to provision the email account ofthe user.

The configuration module 24 a is operative for determining that if no MXor A records exist, email cannot be delivered or retrieved from theemail account based on the entered email address parameters. Typicallythe configuration module can inform the user that incorrect data hasbeen entered and provisioning of the email account cannot begin untilcorrect email address parameters are entered. Similarly with the MXrecord example set forth above, a different mail exchange server can bedetermined and a prioritized list of possible mail servers obtained.There now follows details of an example of guessing logic that can beused.

Guessing logic as will be described can be used as an aid forprovisioning an account. FIG. 9 illustrates a system for automaticallylearning conventions used by mail domains. The system is part of theintelligent server 211, which includes a validator module 213 thatdetermines a valid set of configuration parameters 214. The serverincludes a learner module 215, which accepts the valid set ofconfiguration parameters 214 and generates configuration conventions216. A configuration conventions store 218 is operative as a databasepreferably part of the server, but could be separate. It stores theconventions for each mail domain. The learner module 215 is operativewith a rules store 217 as a database of different rules.

The validator module 213 determines a valid set of configurationparameters 214 for a respective mailbox based on a limited number ofconfiguration parameters provided by the user. In an example embodiment,the validator module 213 may try to access the respective mailbox usinga set of best guesses (estimates) for the configuration parameters asprovided by the service that invokes the validator module 213. In theexample embodiment, if the access attempt fails, the validator module213 may request additional information from the user until the validatormodule 213 has a valid set of configuration parameters. The validatormodule 213 accesses the mailbox being configured by using the accessprotocol relevant to the mailbox.

In an example embodiment, the validator module 213 would use POP toaccess a POP enabled mailbox to verify that the configuration parameters214 are valid. In other example embodiments, the validator module 213may use IMAP to access IMAP enabled mailboxes. As is obvious to thoseskilled in the art, there are many access protocols that may be used toaccess mailboxes. After attempting to validate the configurationparameters 214, the validator module 213 returns status information andthe valid set of configuration parameters 214.

The learner module 215 accepts the configuration parameters 214 andgenerates the configuration convention 216 for the configurationparameters 214. The configuration convention 216 is a manner offormatting the conventions used for configuration parameters for storagein the configuration convention store 218. In an example embodiment, ifthe users email address is “john.smith@foo.com”, and the login nameparameter required by the relevant mail host is “jsmi”, an expressionwithin the configuration convention 216 for the login name parameter maybe <FirstName(1)><LastName(3)>.

A variety of formats could be used in implementing a configurationconvention 216. The learner module 215 may apply certain tests to theconfiguration parameters 214 to ensure that the configuration parameters214 are credible. In an example embodiment, the learner module 215 willonly learn conventions in cases where the mail host is in the same maildomain as the email address of the user, to avoid attempts by “hackers”to pollute the learned configuration conventions 216. Other tests areenvisioned to ensure the integrity of the learned configurationconventions 216. The learner module 215 may also apply rules that arestored in the rules store 217. These rules may be based on businesscriteria or other relevant criteria. In an example embodiment, the rulesmay indicate that certain conventions are not-to be learned for securityreasons.

Configuration conventions 216 that are deemed acceptable by the learnermodule 215 are then stored in the configuration conventions store 218.In an example embodiment, the configuration conventions store 218 mayinclude standard configuration conventions applicable to all domains, aswell as one or more of the automatically learned configurationconventions 216 for each mail domain. Mail domains may have more thanone associated configuration convention, as there may be multiple waysand protocols in which the mailbox on the mail domain may be accessed.

Services may then access the configuration conventions 216 from theconfiguration convention store 218 to generate a list of potential setsof configuration parameters when configuring access to one or more ofthe user mailboxes.

Based on empirical evidence, the vast majority of email providers adhereto a number of conventions when it comes to the configuration parametersused to access mailboxes. Almost all of the POP mail hosts in existencetoday are prefixed with “mail.”, “pop.”, or “pop3.”. It is likely that auser with an email address of “john.smith@foo.com” would be able toaccess their POP-enabled mailbox through the host named “mail.foo.com”,“pop.foo.com” or “pop3.foo.com”. These conventions can be captured in adata store and it is possible for the service that requires access tothe user's mailbox to use the conventions to generate potentially validsets of configuration parameters. The server can then attempt todetermine a valid set of configuration parameters that can be used toaccess the user's mailbox. The set of configuration parameters for theuser's mailbox can be determined when the user only provides an emailaddress and password. The system can also successfully determine theconfiguration parameters in most cases. As new conventions areintroduced or are discovered, they may be easily added to the datastore.

A guesser or determination module 232 (FIG. 10) is part of the server211 and operative as the mailbox interface module and generates possiblesets of configuration parameters 234 based on user suppliedconfiguration information 230, coupled with configuration conventions216 stored in the configuration conventions data store 218. Services maythen use the sets of configuration parameters 234 to determine thecorrect set of configuration parameters required to access the user'smailbox.

FIG. 11 shows further details of the configuration conventions 216. Itshould be understood that configuration conventions are sets of e-mailexpressions formed by symbols, which can also be literals, such as aport number. In an example embodiment, a configuration convention 216may comprise an expression for the server name parameter and anexpression for the login name parameter. If, in the example embodiment,the email provider uses the login name “jsmith” and the mail domain“mail.foo.com” given an email address “john.smith@foo.com”, the loginname expression in the configuration convention 216 may be<FirstName(1)><LastName>, while the server name expression may be“mail.<MailDomain>”. In this example, the number in brackets within theexpression <FirstName(1)>, represents the number of characters to beused from the parameter <FirstName>, ie. “j”. As is obvious to oneskilled in the art, a variety of different symbolic representations maybe used to represent the conventions for configuration parameters. Theconfiguration conventions data store 218 stores the configurationconventions 216. As new conventions are introduced or discovered, theymay be easily added to the configuration conventions store 218.

The module 232 generates the sets of possible configuration parameters234 based on user-supplied information 230, and relevant configurationconventions 216 from the configuration conventions data store 218. Inmany cases, the users email address provides sufficient information tobe able to generate an accurate set of configuration parameters. In theexample embodiment, given the email address “jane.doe@foo.com”, themodule 232 would use the configuration conventions 216 to generate thepossible configuration parameters 234 “jdoe” for the login name, and“mail.foo.com” for the server name.

Email providers use many conventions when determining configurationparameters, and as a result, the module 232 generates many sets ofpossible configuration parameters 234. To reduce the number of setsgenerated, the module 232 may only generate a subset of the sets ofpossible configuration parameters 234 based on additional userinformation, or based on heuristics of likelihood 233 that a given setof configuration parameters 234 may be successful under a givenscenario. In an example embodiment, the user may indicate that onlyconfiguration conventions 216 with a protocol expression 239 of “IMAP”should be considered. In the example, the heuristics 233 could includetracking statistics about the number of attempts and percentage ofsuccesses using a given configuration convention 216, and thereby onlygenerate possible configuration parameters 234 based on thisconfiguration convention 216 if certain conditions are met.

Although many email providers adhere to fairly standard conventions forconfiguration parameters, such as naming the mail host“mail.<MailDomain>” and matching the login name to the email address,there are many other email providers that employ less obviousconventions, such as setting the login name to be<FirstName(1)><LastName(3)>, which in the case of the user with e-mailaddress of “john.smith@foo.com” would translate to the login name of“jsmi”. In the case of protocols that use uniform resource locators(URL) to indicate the location of the mailbox, the conventions are evenless standard, since the login names are often embedded in the middle ofthe URL.

By capturing these conventions in the data store, it is possible for theservice that requires access to the user's mailbox to use theconventions to generate potentially valid sets of configurationparameters, and then attempt to determine a valid set of configurationparameters that can be used to access the user's mailbox. Therefore, itis possible to determine the set of configuration parameters for theuser's mailbox even if the user is unable to provide all of thenecessary configuration information. All that may be required from theuser is an email address and password, from which the system may be ableto successfully determine the configuration parameters in most cases. Asnew conventions are introduced or are discovered, they may be easilyadded to the data store.

The configuration parameters could be represented using symbolicexpressions, which may then be retained in the configuration conventionsdata store 218 for use by the service. This allows the service to drawconfiguration conventions from the data store, and using context data,to construct a valid set of configuration parameters that can be used toaccess mailboxes.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a system for generating configurationsthat comprise sets of configuration parameters 254. A transformer module252 as part of server 211 takes configuration conventions 216 stored ina configuration conventions data store 218 and expands them to generateconfiguration parameters 254 based on user supplied context data 250.

FIG. 13 shows further details of the symbolic representation ofconfiguration conventions 216. The configuration conventions 216symbolically represent the conventions used by email providers for a setof configuration parameters. The configuration conventions 216 compriseexpressions 239 that represent individual configuration parameters usingsymbols 257. In an example embodiment, the configuration convention 216may be formed as an expression for the server name parameter, anexpression for the login name parameter, and an expression for the mailprotocol. If, in the example embodiment, the email provider uses thelogin name “jsmi” and the mail domain “mail.foo.com” given an emailaddress “john.smith@foo.com”, the login name expression in theconfiguration convention 216 may be “<FirstName(1)><LastName(3)>”, whilethe server name expression may be “mail.<MailDomain>”. In this example,the number in brackets within the symbol 257 “<FirstName(1)>”,represents the number of characters to be used from the users first nameparameter, i.e., “j”. Similarly, the number in brackets in a symbol 257“<LastName(3)>” represents the number of characters to be used from theusers last name, ie. “smi”. As is obvious to one skilled in the art, avariety of different symbolic representations may be used to representthe conventions for configuration parameters. The choice of expressions239 can be quite arbitrary, and are only limited by the requirement thatthe expression 239 can be expanded into a configuration parameter basedon the context data 250 supplied to the transformer module 252.

The configuration conventions data store 218 stores the configurationconventions 216. As new conventions are introduced or discovered, theymay be easily added to the configuration conventions data store 218.

The transformer module 252 expands the individual expressions 239 intoconfiguration parameters by expanding each symbol 257 into itscorresponding value using context data 250. In an example embodiment, aconfiguration convention 216 may comprise the mail protocol expression239 a, “POP”, the server name expression 239 b “mail.<MailDomain>” andthe login name expression 239 c “<FirstName(1)><LastName(3)>”, forexample, as shown in FIG. 11 for a plurality of expressions. If thetransformer module 252 were provided with the context data 250comprising the email address “john.smith@foo.com”, the transformermodule 252 would infer the mail domain as “foo.com” from the emailaddress. It would then generate the configuration parameters 234 of“POP” for the mail protocol, “mail.foo.com” for the server name, and“jsmi” for the login name.

An example of a handheld mobile wireless communications device 1000 thatmay be used is further described in the example below with reference toFIG. 14. The device 1000 illustratively includes a housing 1200, akeypad 1400 and an output device 1600. The output device shown is adisplay 1600, which is preferably a full graphic LCD. Other types ofoutput devices may alternatively be utilized. A processing device 1800is contained within the housing 1200 and is coupled between the keypad1400 and the display 1600. The processing device 1800 controls theoperation of the display 1600, as well as the overall operation of themobile device 1000, in response to actuation of keys on the keypad 1400by the user.

The housing 1200 may be elongated vertically, or may take on other sizesand shapes (including clamshell housing structures). The keypad mayinclude a mode selection key, or other hardware or software forswitching between text entry and telephony entry.

In addition to the processing device 1800, other parts of the mobiledevice 1000 are shown schematically in FIG. 14. These include acommunications subsystem 1001; a short-range communications subsystem1020; the keypad 1400 and the display 1600, along with otherinput/output devices 1060, 1080, 1100 and 1120; as well as memorydevices 1160, 1180 and various other device subsystems 1201. The mobiledevice 1000 is preferably a two-way RF communications device havingvoice and data communications capabilities. In addition, the mobiledevice 1000 preferably has the capability to communicate with othercomputer systems via the Internet.

Operating system software executed by the processing device 1800 ispreferably stored in a persistent store, such as the flash memory 1160,but may be stored in other types of memory devices, such as a read onlymemory (ROM) or similar storage element. In addition, system software,specific device applications, or parts thereof, may be temporarilyloaded into a volatile store, such as the random access memory (RAM)1180. Communications signals received by the mobile device may also bestored in the RAM 1180.

The processing device 1800, in addition to its operating systemfunctions, enables execution of software applications 1300A-1300N on thedevice 1000. A predetermined set of applications that control basicdevice operations, such as data and voice communications 1300A and1300B, may be installed on the device 1000 during manufacture. Inaddition, a personal information manager (PIM) application may beinstalled during manufacture. The PIM is preferably capable oforganizing and managing data items, such as e-mail, calendar events,voice mails, appointments, and task items. The PIM application is alsopreferably capable of sending and receiving data items via a wirelessnetwork 1401. Preferably, the PIM data items are seamlessly integrated,synchronized and updated via the wireless network 1401 with the deviceuser's corresponding data items stored or associated with a hostcomputer system.

Communication functions, including data and voice communications, areperformed through the communications subsystem 1001, and possiblythrough the short-range communications subsystem. The communicationssubsystem 1001 includes a receiver 1500, a transmitter 1520, and one ormore antennas 1540 and 1560. In addition, the communications subsystem1001 also includes a processing module, such as a digital signalprocessor (DSP) 1580, and local oscillators (LOs) 1601. The specificdesign and implementation of the communications subsystem 1001 isdependent upon the communications network in which the mobile device1000 is intended to operate. For example, a mobile device 1000 mayinclude a communications subsystem 1001 designed to operate with theMobitex™, Data TAC™ or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile datacommunications networks, and also designed to operate with any of avariety of voice communications networks, such as AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, PCS,GSM, etc. Other types of data and voice networks, both separate andintegrated, may also be utilized with the mobile device 1000.

Network access requirements vary depending upon the type ofcommunication system. For example, in the Mobitex and DataTAC networks,mobile devices are registered on the network using a unique personalidentification number or PIN associated with each device. In GPRSnetworks, however, network access is associated with a subscriber oruser of a device. A GPRS device therefore requires a subscriber identitymodule, commonly referred to as a SIM card, in order to operate on aGPRS network.

When required network registration or activation procedures have beencompleted, the mobile device 1000 may send and receive communicationssignals over the communication network 1401. Signals received from thecommunications network 1401 by the antenna 1540 are routed to thereceiver 1500, which provides for signal amplification, frequency downconversion, filtering, channel selection, etc., and may also provideanalog to digital conversion. Analog-to-digital conversion of thereceived signal allows the DSP 1580 to perform more complexcommunications functions, such as demodulation and decoding. In asimilar manner, signals to be transmitted to the network 1401 areprocessed (e.g. modulated and encoded) by the DSP 1580 and are thenprovided to the transmitter 1520 for digital to analog conversion,frequency up conversion, filtering, amplification and transmission tothe communication network 1401 (or networks) via the antenna 1560.

In addition to processing communications signals, the DSP 1580 providesfor control of the receiver 1500 and the transmitter 1520. For example,gains applied to communications signals in the receiver 1500 andtransmitter 1520 may be adaptively controlled through automatic gaincontrol algorithms implemented in the DSP 1580.

In a data communications mode, a received signal, such as a text messageor web page download, is processed by the communications subsystem 1001and is input to the processing device 1800. The received signal is thenfurther processed by the processing device 1800 for an output to thedisplay 1600, or alternatively to some other auxiliary I/O device 1060.A device user may also compose data items, such as e-mail messages,using the keypad 1400 and/or some other auxiliary I/O device 1060, suchas a touchpad, a rocker switch, a thumb-wheel, or some other type ofinput device. The composed data items may then be transmitted over thecommunications network 1401 via the communications subsystem 1001.

In a voice communications mode, overall operation of the device issubstantially similar to the data communications mode, except thatreceived signals are output to a speaker 1100, and signals fortransmission are generated by a microphone 1120. Alternative voice oraudio I/O subsystems, such as a voice message recording subsystem, mayalso be implemented on the device 1000. In addition, the display 1600may also be utilized in voice communications mode, for example todisplay the identity of a calling party, the duration of a voice call,or other voice call related information.

The short-range communications subsystem enables communication betweenthe mobile device 1000 and other proximate systems or devices, whichneed not necessarily be similar devices. For example, the short-rangecommunications subsystem may include an infrared device and associatedcircuits and components, or a Bluetooth™ communications module toprovide for communication with similarly-enabled systems and devices.

This application is related to copending patent applications entitled,“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVISIONING AN EMAIL ACCOUNT USING MAIL EXCHANGEAND ADDRESS RECORDS” which is filed on the same date and by the sameassignee and inventors.

Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention will come tothe mind of one skilled in the art having the benefit of the teachingspresented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings.Therefore, it is understood that the invention is not to be limited tothe specific embodiments disclosed, and that modifications andembodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appendedclaims.

1. A system for provisioning an electronic mail (email) account of auser for allowing access to an electronic mailbox from a remote deviceto retrieve email comprising: a communications module that receivesemail address parameters of the user and transmits a domain name system(DNS) query to the Internet for returning mail exchange (MX) recordscorresponding to the email address parameters of the user; and aconfiguration module that processes any returned MX records as astarting point for determining configuration parameters for accessingthe email account of the user to retrieve user email.
 2. A systemaccording to claim 1, wherein said configuration module is operative fordetermining from the MX records a mail exchange server for an emaildomain name from which email is routed for the user email account.
 3. Asystem according to claim 1, wherein said communications module isoperative for receiving a password from the user and attempting accessto the user email account using any determined configuration parameters.4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said configuration module isoperative for obtaining from the MX records a prioritized list ofpossible mail servers to which the user email account is to be accessedand attempting access to an email account based on priority.
 5. A systemaccording to claim 1, wherein said configuration parameters comprise oneof at least a mail host, port, log-in name or password.
 6. A systemaccording to claim 1, wherein said configuration module is operative forgenerating a subset of possible configuration parameters by usingheuristics of likelihood that a set of configuration parameters would bevalid for accessing an electronic mailbox.
 7. A system according toclaim 6, and further comprising a database containing relevantconfiguration conventions that are sets of email expressions formed bysymbols that symbolically represent the conventions used by emailservice providers for a set of configuration parameters, wherein saidconfiguration module is operative for generating sets of possibleconfiguration parameters that can be tried for accessing an electronicmailbox of a user.
 8. A system according to claim 1, and furthercomprising a mobile office platform on which said communications moduleand configuration module are operative and having a direct access proxyused for accessing an electronic mailbox.
 9. A method of provisioning anelectronic mail (email) account of a user for allowing access to anelectronic mailbox from a remote device to retrieve email, whichcomprises: receiving email address parameters entered by a user;transmitting a domain name system (DNS) query to the Internet andreturning the mail exchange (MX) records corresponding to the emailaddress parameters entered by the user; and using the MX records as astarting point for determining configuration parameters for accessingthe email account of the user.
 10. A method according to claim 9, whichfurther comprises determining from the MX records a mail exchange serverfor an email domain name from which email is routed for the user emailaccount.
 11. A method according to claim 9, which further comprisesreceiving a password from the user and attempting access to the useremail account using any determined configuration parameters and thereceived password.
 12. A method according to claim 9, which furthercomprises obtaining from the MX records a prioritized list of possiblemail servers to which the user email account is to be accessed andattempting access to an email account based on priority.
 13. A methodaccording to claim 9, which further comprises determining one of atleast a mail host, port, login name or password.
 14. A method accordingto claim 9, which further comprises generating a subset of possibleconfiguration parameters by using heuristics of likelihood that a set ofconfiguration parameters would be valid for accessing an electronicmailbox.
 15. A method according to claim 14, which further comprisesretrieving from a database relevant configuration conventions that aresets of email expressions formed by symbols that symbolically representthe conventions used by email service providers for a set ofconfiguration parameters, and generating sets of possible configurationparameters that can be tried for accessing an electronic mailbox of auser.
 16. A method according to claim 9, which further comprisesdetermining configuration parameters and accessing an electronic mailboxthrough a mobile office platform having a direct access proxy.
 17. Acomputer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions forexecuting instructions, which comprises: receiving email addressparameters entered by a user; transmitting a domain name system (DNS)query to the Internet and returning the mail exchange (MX) recordscorresponding to the email address parameters entered by the user; andusing the MX records as a starting point for determining configurationparameters for accessing the email account of the user.
 18. Acomputer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein saidcomputer-executable instructions are operative for determining from theMX records a mail exchange server for an email domain name from whichemail is routed for the user email account.
 19. A computer-readablemedium according to claim 17, wherein said computer-executableinstructions are operative for obtaining from the MX records aprioritized list of possible mail servers to which the user emailaccount is to be accessed and attempting access to an email accountbased on priority.
 20. A computer-readable medium according to claim 17,wherein said computer-executable instructions are operative generating asubset of possible configuration parameters by using heuristics oflikelihood that a set of configuration parameters would be valid foraccessing an electronic mailbox.
 21. A computer-readable mediumaccording to claim 20, wherein said computer-executable instructions areoperative for retrieving from a database relevant configurationconventions that are sets of email expressions formed by symbols thatsymbolically represent the conventions used by email service providersfor a set of configuration parameters, and generating sets of possibleconfiguration parameters that can be tried for accessing an electronicmailbox of a user.